Instead of sorting themselves into categories, programs sort themselves by vendor. How intuitive is that, exactly?
Generally the name of the vendor features quite prominently on the box of the software you buy. I agree that perhaps having categories might be better, but that's not a problem with Windows as such, but with it being the way things have always been done.
I would also not like to end up with a start menu containing entries for, e.g, "Office Software", "Office Suites", "Word Processors", "Games", "3D Games", "Entertainment (Games)", etc.
Who would create the categorisation and how would it be enforced?
Of course, it is editable, but how many users are willing to do that? I am a competent user, yet I still can't be bothered.
Well, I am - just like I'm willing to organise my DVDs and books, put things in sensible places in my kitchen, etc. You add stuff to a container, you've got to be prepared to organise that container. Why would a PC be any different? It can help a little, but it can't do everything for you.
Compare the Windows Start menu with the new KDE menu... and IIRC, Vista's new menu is a rip-off of KDE's
They're certainly very similar, but I don't know which came first.
You see, Microsoft or Apple don't really have an obligation to fix your bugs, as when you buy the OS you've handed over the only bargaining counter you held.
Not so. Just because I bought XP (which I did) doesn't mean I'll buy Vista (haven't yet, but might). Also, while I don't know about Apple Microsoft certainly offer paid-for support, either on a contractual or per-incident basis. You also get a number of free support calls (three, I think) if you buy Windows retail. (Not for OEM copies or pre-installs of course - see your OEM for support in that case). No, individual consumers probably won't get bug fixes written for them - but large corporates most certainly will.
Well personally I define "DE" as "desktop environment", and hence the iPhone is usable without one. It wouldn't be usable without the GUI it does have, however...
And that sort of thing is part of the reason why I disabled tags in my preferences - for every one good, useful tag there are half a dozen or more stupid, useless or just plain wrong ones.
With the iTunes/FP setup, I install media, know my options with regard to said media, and I choose to continue using the software regulating those rights.
True, but I didn't choose to install Bonjour, or Mobile Me, or to have a service and a background helper app running the entire time on the off chance that I might want iTunes to start when I plug my iPod in (I don't!). Installing additional software without even so much as telling me is wrong, especially when I have no use for the software.
The great irony of this, is that everyone on the board thinks that the studio can just arbitrarily make a good movie button.
"well, just make a good movie", betrays a total lack of understanding for the arts.
It's particularly ironic given that most of us, and most especially those of us who are programmers, would never say "well, just make good, bug-free software", despite it amounting to the same thing.
Actually, given that the search engine is just launching and it is apparently a real word, I really don't think that a search for its name *should* return it at the top of the list. I'd be more worried if they'd put in an exception to make it happen - what other exceptions might they be putting in?
If you would prefer that we not crawl your site at all we are happy to oblige. Just drop Jim a note to that effect and he will place your site or IP address on our do-not-crawl list. Be sure to be explicit about the site to block as email address domains frequently differ from the site in question.
I'd much prefer they correctly obey the robots.txt file personally...
I don't know for sure, but back in the 80s here in the UK it was common knowledge that in the event of a nuclear attack launched by Russia we'd have 4 minutes warning. Quite how that came to be common knowledge and how accurate it is I don't know, but I suspect that you're right, and that even a ground/sea based launch isn't going to give a country a whole lot of time to retaliate.
On the other hand though, a space-based launch is presumably going to give less time (who looks up?) and, assuming multiple powers have nukes in orbit, at least some plausible deniability as to who is responsible.
I have another observation - there doesn't seem to be any localisation to it. That may well come with time (it was a while before Google had it), but being able to go to google.co.uk and specify that it should search for pages from the UK can be extremely helpful, for example when searching for details of public holidays or shops or similar region-specific things.
Many companies in europe would for instance avoid paying business class tickets for shorter trips etc unless absolutely necessary.
That's true, but also rather different. If my company can charge my client for an extra hour of my time, that would pay for a day's worth of internet access even at $10/hour. Flying me out business class doesn't gain them anything, apart from my thanks - which while not worthless by any means, probably aren't worth that much for a short trip.
And yet any story about the MPAA/RIAA suing people for huge sums of money attracts howls of outrage.
Break the law by spamming and they want you locked up for life or killed; break the law by infringing copyright and they want either a slap on the wrist or copyright to be abolished.
Define happy - I hear plenty of moaning about the price of fuel and calls and petitions to have it lowered (by reducing the tax on it, which makes up a large proportion of the price).
I have to admit to feeling very little sympathy for the Chelsea tractor set though...
Well, iTMS can go offline and it won't affect my ability to play the 6 or so songs I've bought from there.
I dislike DRM as much as the next slashbot, but some implementations are less bad than others. (You'll note however that I have only bought half a dozen or so songs, so I'm clearly still not that comfortable with it...)
There apparently is one - "SCRABBLE(tm) Worldwide (excluding U.S. and Canada)" (just search for Scrabble on Facebook, it was the top hit for me). Note that I've not added it yet, so I've no idea of the quality.
Are you sure about that? I could have sworn that the last time I was fixing permissions in a MS SQL Server DB, I had to grant the user both execute permission (to run the stored procs) and select permission (as they selected from tables).
That might just have been my inexperience (I'm definitely not a DBA!) though...
As well as the security aspects of using prepared statements, they can also boost performance as the RDBMS doesn't have to keep parsing what is in fact the same statement time and again.
Stored procedures can similarly increase security (when used right) and boost performance, depending on your application and architecture. For example if the DB is running on a different physical box then shifting some of the data processing there can take a load off the app/web server(s). On the other hand that increases the application's complexity, as you now have business logic in (at least) two places and (almost certainly, but not necessarily) two languages.
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Instead of sorting themselves into categories, programs sort themselves by vendor.
How intuitive is that, exactly?
Generally the name of the vendor features quite prominently on the box of the software you buy. I agree that perhaps having categories might be better, but that's not a problem with Windows as such, but with it being the way things have always been done.
I would also not like to end up with a start menu containing entries for, e.g, "Office Software", "Office Suites", "Word Processors", "Games", "3D Games", "Entertainment (Games)", etc.
Who would create the categorisation and how would it be enforced?
Of course, it is editable, but how many users are willing to do that? I am a competent user, yet I still can't be bothered.
Well, I am - just like I'm willing to organise my DVDs and books, put things in sensible places in my kitchen, etc. You add stuff to a container, you've got to be prepared to organise that container. Why would a PC be any different? It can help a little, but it can't do everything for you.
Compare the Windows Start menu with the new KDE menu... and IIRC, Vista's new menu is a rip-off of KDE's
They're certainly very similar, but I don't know which came first.
It's also why a good few of us IT professionals simply don't have time for it any more.
You see, Microsoft or Apple don't really have an obligation to fix your bugs, as when you buy the OS you've handed over the only bargaining counter you held.
Not so. Just because I bought XP (which I did) doesn't mean I'll buy Vista (haven't yet, but might). Also, while I don't know about Apple Microsoft certainly offer paid-for support, either on a contractual or per-incident basis. You also get a number of free support calls (three, I think) if you buy Windows retail. (Not for OEM copies or pre-installs of course - see your OEM for support in that case). No, individual consumers probably won't get bug fixes written for them - but large corporates most certainly will.
Well personally I define "DE" as "desktop environment", and hence the iPhone is usable without one. It wouldn't be usable without the GUI it does have, however...
I know that you're joking, but even setting all my language and locale settings to UK in Windows doesn't fix spelling differences like "color".
And that sort of thing is part of the reason why I disabled tags in my preferences - for every one good, useful tag there are half a dozen or more stupid, useless or just plain wrong ones.
With the iTunes/FP setup, I install media, know my options with regard to said media, and I choose to continue using the software regulating those rights.
True, but I didn't choose to install Bonjour, or Mobile Me, or to have a service and a background helper app running the entire time on the off chance that I might want iTunes to start when I plug my iPod in (I don't!). Installing additional software without even so much as telling me is wrong, especially when I have no use for the software.
It's "supposed", not "suppose". Yes I am a grammar nazi, yes I have lost, etc.
Oh and moderation isn't so much broken as pointless. I hit the karma cap years ago - seriously, who cares?
Well, yes. You don't generally sell a thing by letting people know about all the things that are wrong with it.
On the other hand, The Crow certainly didn't suffer from the publicity surrounding Brandon Lee's on-set death.
The great irony of this, is that everyone on the board thinks that the studio can just arbitrarily make a good movie button.
"well, just make a good movie", betrays a total lack of understanding for the arts.
It's particularly ironic given that most of us, and most especially those of us who are programmers, would never say "well, just make good, bug-free software", despite it amounting to the same thing.
Actually, given that the search engine is just launching and it is apparently a real word, I really don't think that a search for its name *should* return it at the top of the list. I'd be more worried if they'd put in an exception to make it happen - what other exceptions might they be putting in?
Well he failed, as "slashdot" is perfectly pronounceable.
They also say:
I'd much prefer they correctly obey the robots.txt file personally...
I don't know for sure, but back in the 80s here in the UK it was common knowledge that in the event of a nuclear attack launched by Russia we'd have 4 minutes warning. Quite how that came to be common knowledge and how accurate it is I don't know, but I suspect that you're right, and that even a ground/sea based launch isn't going to give a country a whole lot of time to retaliate.
On the other hand though, a space-based launch is presumably going to give less time (who looks up?) and, assuming multiple powers have nukes in orbit, at least some plausible deniability as to who is responsible.
I have another observation - there doesn't seem to be any localisation to it. That may well come with time (it was a while before Google had it), but being able to go to google.co.uk and specify that it should search for pages from the UK can be extremely helpful, for example when searching for details of public holidays or shops or similar region-specific things.
And yeah, Cuil is a dumb name.
Meh, I doubt it, knowing our luck we'd even lose at that - kids these days don't know how to whine properly, not like back in my time...
Many companies in europe would for instance avoid paying business class tickets for shorter trips etc unless absolutely necessary.
That's true, but also rather different. If my company can charge my client for an extra hour of my time, that would pay for a day's worth of internet access even at $10/hour. Flying me out business class doesn't gain them anything, apart from my thanks - which while not worthless by any means, probably aren't worth that much for a short trip.
A carpenter wouldn't pay another carpenter to remodel his home...
There are plenty of reasons why he might - not least of which is that he can then carry on working and earning the money to pay for the remodelling.
I do see your point, but there are always reasons why someone might pay someone else to do something that they can do themselves.
And yet any story about the MPAA/RIAA suing people for huge sums of money attracts howls of outrage.
Break the law by spamming and they want you locked up for life or killed; break the law by infringing copyright and they want either a slap on the wrist or copyright to be abolished.
Define happy - I hear plenty of moaning about the price of fuel and calls and petitions to have it lowered (by reducing the tax on it, which makes up a large proportion of the price).
I have to admit to feeling very little sympathy for the Chelsea tractor set though...
Well, iTMS can go offline and it won't affect my ability to play the 6 or so songs I've bought from there.
I dislike DRM as much as the next slashbot, but some implementations are less bad than others. (You'll note however that I have only bought half a dozen or so songs, so I'm clearly still not that comfortable with it...)
There apparently is one - "SCRABBLE(tm) Worldwide (excluding U.S. and Canada)" (just search for Scrabble on Facebook, it was the top hit for me). Note that I've not added it yet, so I've no idea of the quality.
Are you sure about that? I could have sworn that the last time I was fixing permissions in a MS SQL Server DB, I had to grant the user both execute permission (to run the stored procs) and select permission (as they selected from tables).
That might just have been my inexperience (I'm definitely not a DBA!) though...
As well as the security aspects of using prepared statements, they can also boost performance as the RDBMS doesn't have to keep parsing what is in fact the same statement time and again.
Stored procedures can similarly increase security (when used right) and boost performance, depending on your application and architecture. For example if the DB is running on a different physical box then shifting some of the data processing there can take a load off the app/web server(s). On the other hand that increases the application's complexity, as you now have business logic in (at least) two places and (almost certainly, but not necessarily) two languages.